Not the kind of news I like with my morning cup of coffee ...

... and given that it's the last day of my summer break, I very well could have been just getting up when this terrible news reached my eyes.

Former Flash and Fantastic Four artist Mike Wieringo has died at the age of 44 of a massive heart attack. I absolutely adored his run on Fantastic Four, and he did a really cool fantasy book with Todd Dezago called Tellos which I'd read a little of and was mightily impressed by -- and I really don't care for fantasy in most instances, so believe me, it really knocked my socks off, and that's mostly due to Wieringo's detailed, cartoony yet somehow grounded artwork. Truly a rare talent.

My pal Evan e-mailed me the news, which left my mouth agape and tears welling up in my eyes for a minute or two. It's really not often that news of someone I didn't know personally hits me so hard, but there was always such warmth in his artwork, such vibrant personality to his characters that you always had to figure that he was a genuinely good guy ... and by all accounts, he was. I was always looking forward to more of his work; now, I guess, no more.

Dammit.